According to a new study presented at the American Society for Radiation Oncology 51^st Annual Meeting, men with low-risk prostate cancer who undergo radiation therapy do not need to be treated with hormone therapy. Hormone treatment does not improve survival in this group of prostate cancer patients.

This study, involving 1979 men with prostate cancer, is the largest prostate cancer study to date. Study participants were randomly assigned to receive either hormone therapy plus radiation or radiation alone. After 8 years of follow-up, the overall survival and prostate cancer-specific survival were similar between the two groups of patients. Since hormone therapy can lead to loss of sexual function and liver toxicity, being able to skip hormone treatment means fewer adverse side effects for low-risk prostate cancer patients.

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American Society for Radiation Oncology (ASTRO) 51^st Annual Meeting, Presented 2 November 2009.